Back To Work: The Debt

No doubt we will have more to say about the election now and then, but it is time to get back to the issues. Conservatism, after all, is about issues far more than political campaigns. Issue number one is the national debt, currently in excess of $16 trillion.

The Obama administration made no effort to address the debt during its first term–other than adding more than a trillion dollars a year to it, that is. Obama won’t do anything about it in his second term, either, unless he has to. But I suspect events will not allow him to ignore it for another four years.

If you want a preview of where our debt is taking us, check out Greece. The Economist reports:

Greece has been in recession for over five years. In August the unemployment rate rose for the 39th consecutive month. Joblessness among all workers stood at 25.4%, while unemployment for those aged 15-24 soared to 58%. More sobering still, the European Commission’s latest economic outlook forecasts a contraction of 4.2% for the Greek economy in 2013. The Commission reckons the Greek economy might expand by 0.6% in 2014.

So Greeks are rioting:

Greece faced massive strikes turned riots yesterday as its government passed a new round of fiscal consolidation, designed to shrink the budget €18.5 billion by 2016. The contents of the austerity plan hardly seems like the stuff to drive Greeks to firebomb riot police; among the measures under debate were a two-year rise in the retirement age and measures to make it easier to fire public employees.

When Greeks riot, they don’t fool around:

Does this guy look familiar?

Of course, there are many differences between the United States and Greece. For one thing, you are a lot deeper in debt than the Greeks are:

Actually, you are deeper in debt than anyone, and Barack Obama doesn’t care. We are, as Mark Steyn sometimes says, the brokest nation in history. What can’t go on forever, won’t, and I don’t think Obama can go four more years without the wave of debt crashing on his head. And ours: